skysenshi.com

I didn’t want to pre-empt anything regarding an upcoming artistic project but I was fortunate enough to have had the chance to do a photo shoot at the New World Hotel in Makati. Well, the hotel isn’t the subject. My models are. But I don’t want to post photos of them just yet. I’m already having a hard time reconciling my concept with my technical skills so…

Anyhoo, I thought I’d blog about New World Hotel for now. It was my first time to stay there. My team and I were given a corner room on the 12th floor, which had an expansive view of the city. It was spacious and had generous amounts of light, which I needed for the shoot. (I needed to chase the daylight and have, in fact, researched on how long the sun was going to be up.) Here’s the view from our room. That’s the pool area where we actually had the most challenging part of the shoot. I had to use 3 cameras in that area. My Lumix ZS3 for test shots, Cris’s Nikon D80 dSLR and Rose’s Olympus cam for those really difficult shots that had me worrying about my model’s welfare. Beautiful koi garden. I only noticed this when I had finished shooting in the pool area. If I didn’t have a job to do — and weren’t chasing after the sunlight — I would’ve taken a breather in there. The bathroom is rather small, but I like how they separated the shower and bath tub. I feel it’s more hygienic that way. (Or maybe that’s just me.) One thing I noticed here is the presence of so many mirrors. I already have two windows: one by the doorway, which revealed a different view (the construction of a future Fairmont hotel), and the other facing Greenbelt 3. The mirrors amplified the lighting…yes, even in the bathroom. This is one of the mirrors. The light streaming from the window bounces off them. Here’s another one. While waiting for my models, I was thinking of various ways of playing with the light. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to use these angles, since we really took too much time in the pool area. By the time we wrapped that shoot up, the six remaining concepts had me using the only available light: lamps. I shot this while lounging on one of the pool chairs. Haha! From outside, New World Hotel doesn’t look much, but I like how it is on the inside. As for the service…the staff were very courteous, fast and accommodating. I also like how they have this doorknob thingie where you can indicate what breakfast you want served and what time it should be served. Beats having to call up room service. That’s me, wondering about another angle. Who owns those hands? Secret! Will be revealing that soon enough.